Cursed

Chapter Twelve

A few blocks away, Jax rocked and chanted, focusing hard on pulling the spirit he sought back into this world. His bedroom smelled of incense, blood and fear.

“I’m too … tired.”

The thin voice interrupted Jax’s chanting. He dropped beside the body on the bed.

“Come on, baby. You can do it.” He poured more of the dark liquid in the jar between the lips of the pretty, buxom blonde he’d found lost in one of the crew’s alleys. Streetlight lit up her pale face. Blue eyes were dazed, her features clammy.

“Jax …” Therese’s voice was distant, fading.

“No, baby, no,” he whispered urgently. He tossed his head back. “I command you, Baron Samedi! Bring her spirit to me!”

The blonde’s body bucked in response, and the woman cried out. Blood streamed from her nose and ears, joining the rivulets he’d caused earlier when he cut her for the rite. She shuddered and fell still suddenly, her eyes closing.

Jax felt as if he’d been punched harder than ever before. He struggled to catch his breath and steady his shaking hands. Each time he performed the rite, he lost a little more of himself. If he didn’t work out for two hours a day to stay strong, he’d have been dead years before from the toll the rite took on him.

“Therese?” he called, straightening. “Are you there?”

“I … can’t do this any … more,” her faint voice told him. It came from the body of the stranger on the bed. “Can’t … keep running from … him. Need permanent host.”

“You can do it. Come on, baby, just … focus on tonight. Focus hard. We worked too hard for you to give up now.”

The blonde’s body went limp.

Jax uttered the foulest curse he knew and threw the clay jar against a wall. It shattered, and what remained of the blood-based spell slid down the wall.

He sank against the bed, reliving the emotions from the night Therese died, the way he did every time he performed the rite.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, as much to Therese as the woman he’d accidentally killed this night.

Every once in a while, the rite failed to bring Therese’s spirit back from the purgatorial place between life and death where she dwelled. He’d gotten good at the monthly ritual. His first year attempting to bring her back had ended in nothing but failure, but he’d figured it out soon after. it wasn’t the first night recently where he’d been unable to pull her spirit into the token body of a woman he’d chosen for her. The rumors about the serial killer were back on the streets. While their friends in the police force were suppressing them, Jax knew he could only fail so many times before people started asking too many questions.

Jax’s head spun. He sagged against the side of the bed, waiting for the dizziness to pass. It wasn’t normal for him to feel weak during a rite. Then again, he had never performed this particularly powerful rite two nights in a row.

He shook his head and wiped his face. There were tears on his cheeks. Every month, he brought her back, only to lose her when the rite was over. Every month, he mourned her again, and every month, it hurt more.

Resting his head against the mattress, his thoughts drifted once more to Adrienne. He was usually careful with the women whose bodies he claimed for the sacred ritual. They were, after all, the embodiment of his love for twelve to twenty four hours. They deserved his respect and care. He didn’t want to hurt the women permanently, only to borrow their bodies so he could pull Therese back from wherever her spirit was. If they were to avoid the Red Man, she couldn’t stay permanently, no matter how much he yearned for her.

Seeing Adrienne again today, however, made him want to ask Togoun for the magic he needed to give Therese a new body. Forever. But how was it possible, when the Red Man always came for her?

Jax pushed himself up with effort. He was exhausted.

His eyes traveled over the woman. He checked her pulse, not surprised to feel there was none. When he failed to bring Therese back according to the stages of the rite, he ended up losing both spirits.

Was it better in the long run for everyone if he did find a permanent host for Therese’s body? Someone who looked like her? Someone with silky blonde hair and clear, green eyes, whose soft voice reminded him of the few months he’d spent with her?

Who better than her sister?

“No,” Jax said firmly. Adrienne deserved his protection, not to be turned into someone else or worse, to have the Red Man hunt her down, too. Therese would want her sister safe.

Distressed by the weakness and pain he’d heard in Therese’s voice, Jax snatched his knife again and gazed at the dead woman. He had half a notion to go back to Togoun for a new spell, to find a new woman and summon Therese again. Just to be sure she was okay and the Red Man hadn’t gotten her. He might be able to use this body again, if he hurried. Black magic zombie spells were complex, but the body didn’t have to be fresh to be brought back, just recently dead.

A knock at his bedroom door jarred him.

Who was in his house? Had the Red Man sensed Therese enter this world and come to claim her, the way he had a few other times?

Jax readied his knife and yanked his door open.

“Jax, we been looking for you,” his brother said.

Rene’s jaw dropped at the sight of the girl on the bed. Jax glanced around his room, aware of how unnatural everything would appear to someone else. Veves in blood covered the walls and floor, and he’d built a shrine in each corner to a different god or goddess. The room smelled of herbs from the rite and death. The blonde was bound spread eagle on his bed in her underwear.

“What happened?” Rene managed, his voice hushed. “Is she alive?”

“No.”

Rene stared at him, his shock rendering him frozen.

If he was any other member of OL, Jax would kill him where he stood. But he couldn’t, not his brother. He’d already lost the love of his life. He’d never hurt Rene, aside from their occasional scuffle over the crew’s business that ended in a fistfight.

“It’s not what you think,” Jax said. He was almost too exhausted to care that the person he trusted most in the world had found out one of his secrets.

Rene was gazing at him, waiting for an explanation. Jax knew he could lie, and Rene would choose to believe him, even if they both knew it wasn’t the truth.

When had his brother turned into a man? Jax didn’t recall seeing Rene grow. His little brother had been under his guardianship since he was ten, when their father ran off and their mother’s illness constrained her to a wheelchair. Rene dropped out of school when he was thirteen, and Jax had taught him to survive on the streets.

Jax still saw the little boy Rene had been, every time he looked at his brother. But Rene wasn’t a boy. He was a man who had done his fair share of killing and stealing to keep their community and House safe.

“Will you say the dessonet prayers with me?” Jax asked, referring to the final set of prayers meant to help the spirit leave the body for good. “Whatever you think of me right now, she deserves that much.”

Rene said nothing, but Jax knew his brother wouldn’t turn him down. It was a miracle he’d managed to hide what he did for five years from Rene.

He pulled a squeeze bottle of herbs and powders mixed together then drew the veve of Baron Samedi and his family’s guardian, Ogoun, on the woman’s body. When he finished, he knelt beside the bed and bowed his head.

After a moment, Rene joined him.

They murmured the final prayers quietly, asking their ancestors and hers to help the woman’s spirit transition out of her body as gently as possible.

The woman sighed suddenly in death, a sign her spirit was leaving her.

Jax rose. Freeing her spirit was the least he could do for the woman he didn’t mean to murder.

“Will you call Deputy Brannon?” he asked Rene, who hadn’t said anything yet.

“Yeah. Tell him the usual? Drug overdose?”

“Yes.”

Jax un-cuffed her hands then sliced her ankles free with his knife. He reached under the bed for the supply of thick plastic sheeting he kept there for circumstances like this. While rare now, they still happened.

Rene made the phone call quickly to their main contact at the local police station. When he hung up, a tense silence fell between them.

Jax considered how much to tell Rene, now that his brother stumbled upon the girl. Was there more than one reason he hadn’t told the person he trusted most with what he did?

Because it’s wrong.

“She wasn’t supposed to die,” he said into the tense silence.

“You cut her open, Jax. How was she not supposed to die?”

“I didn’t cut her open. I had to … to kill her, in order to bring her back.”

“Zombie? You performed the zombie ritual?”

“Every month for five years.” Jax glanced at his brother. He’d never seen Rene so surprised. “They usually live through it fine, and I turn them loose.”

“But why?”

Jax was quiet for a minute, stretching out the plastic onto the floor beside the bed. His brother was no stranger to death or violence or black magic, yet he hesitated, wanting to protect Rene just a little longer from how bad of a person he was. Rene knew about Jax resorting to black magic when normal violence failed and about the OL traitors or weak members he routinely purged to keep their crew strong and dedicated. Hurting someone innocent, however, was different. Even Jax didn’t take the death well of a woman who had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“I bring Therese back every month through the rite. We spend the day together, and I lose her again. But at least I know I can bring her back next month,” he explained, needing to hear the reasoning out loud. “A few times, the Red Man notices she’s not in the spirit world and shows up to kill her. Then there days where I just … I guess I’m not strong enough.”

“Jax, the penalty for black magic is –”

“Three times the harm I cause. I know. Lift her feet.”

Rene hesitated then obeyed. He picked up the woman’s feet while Jax lifted her upper body. They set her on the plastic sheeting.

“I will go to the deepest pit in hell,” Jax added. “But I might save her.”

“Save her? You crazy, Jax. How many people you kill to save one girl?”

Jax snatched Rene and shoved him into the wall, fury flying through him at the stupid question. He pressed the tip of the bloody knife to Rene’s neck. Eyes the same shade of blue-green as his glared back at him.

“Therese is my world,” Jax snarled. “I will do anything, anything, to protect her. Don’t you ever talk about her like that again!”

“You got serious issues, Jax,” Rene said, unafraid. “You gonna kill me the way you killed that girl?”

“Rarely do they die.” Jax released him, dizziness swirling through him once more. “Normally, it doesn’t happen this way. No one gets hurt.”

“How many have you killed?”

“Twenty-three in the past five years.”

“I’ll help you dump the body, but I don’t want anything to do with this,” Rene snapped. “Blood magic, Jax. You into blood magic.”

Jax said nothing, but slowly began wrapping the body in plastic.

“How you gonna save a dead girl anyway?” Rene demanded, helping him roll her up.

“It’s none of your business, Rene.”

“You’re my brother, and you’re doing something stupid. It is my business.”

“You’re all grown up, aren’t you.” Jax smiled to himself, recognizing the words he’d once told his younger brother to keep him out of trouble. “It’s too much to explain. Help me tonight, and we’ll talk later.”

Rene grumbled. He didn’t speak up again, but assisted Jax in wrapping then taping up the body. Jax took a brief break, hands shaking from effort.

Rene was watching him, arms crossed. His brother showed no sign of weakness like that Jax felt.

“Adrienne is figuring out the journal. Why won’t you give it to her?” Rene asked. “Maybe she can fix … this.” His troubled gaze went to the wrapped body.

“It’s mine,” Jax said. “I’m not giving it up. It’s all I have left.”

“It’s all Adrienne has, too.”

“You care more about Adrienne than your own brother?”

“No. But Candace thinks the journal has some meanin’, something that might break the curse, and she says there’s someone … a chosen. She don’t know what they’re suppose to do yet.”

“It’s too late for Therese!”

“It’s not too late for Adrienne. The curse is after her, Jax.”

Jax was silent. No part of him wanted to give up the journal, the last physical piece of Therese he had. He’d been stunned when Adrienne claimed to have it in the alley. Therese was his, and so was her journal.

“What if she can break it?” Rene pressed. “What if she can help you and Therese?”

“How?”

“I don’t know, man. But she can’t do nothing if you don’t let her try.”

Jax rose and paced. The idea of letting anyone else even touch Therese’s journal made him want to tear something apart.

“She needs the words,” Rene said. “Keep the thing. Just copy it.”

Considering, Jax’s eyes went to the dead girl again. What if Adrienne was able to break the curse? He could find Therese a permanent host without worrying about the Red Man coming for her.

“Take care of her, and I’ll copy it,” he said, pointing to the plastic sheet wrapped body.

Rene shifted uneasily. “I never hurt no girl before.”

“You didn’t hurt this one either.”

“You’ll copy the journal?”

“That’s what I said, isn’t it?” Jax growled.

“Brannon is meeting me downstairs in a few minutes.” Rene grunted and leaned down. He picked up the body and hefted her over his shoulder, carefully balancing her.

Jax studied his brother. Rene was upset, that much was clear. He didn’t doubt Rene would do his part. Blood made them brothers, and their experience on the streets had made them close enough almost to read each other’s minds. Rene was strong and independent minded, but he’d never let his family down.

“How is Adrienne?” Jax asked absently, unable to shake the idea that she’d make the perfect host for her sister.

“You keep her out of your mess. She’s a good girl.” Rene’s tone was sharp.

“She’s under our protection. I have a right to ask.”

“She’s safe. Candace’s helping her. When she has the journal, she might be able to break the curse.”

And I can find Therese a permanent host. Jax nodded. At first, he’d been rattled by the appearance of a girl who looked so much like his lost love. But maybe, she was part of some larger plan. Maybe she was there to break the curse and reunite him with Therese. Maybe, she was the missing piece that Therese hadn’t been able to figure out, before the Red Man came to claim her.

Was it possible to break such a powerful curse that the gods themselves didn’t try to help sweet, innocent Therese?

Rene moved towards the door.

Jax sat down on his bed, feeling even weaker. He viewed the idea of Adrienne breaking the curse with skepticism rather than hope. After all he’d done the past five years, how did he believe the gods would let him bring Therese back from the dead instead of simply helping him break her curse?

He refused to dwell on the cost of what he’d done, the price he’d pay for abusing the sacred rite and for the lives he accidentally ended during it. Today was no different. He’d rest for a day or two days to regain his strength before the full moon arrived in two days time. Then go back to Togoun for a new spell.

The door closed behind Rene.

Jax stood and went to the living room, where he’d hidden the journal behind a stack of books on the TV stand. He turned on a light and squatted beside the stand, retrieving the leather bound diary. He’d tried to read it many times since taking it from Adrienne without succeeding. It was gibberish, nonsense, and he’d given up and focused instead on the familiar images of the Red Man, the veves, and the heart she drew with their initials.

He clutched it to his chest.

No, he couldn’t return it. He’d do what Rene asked and copy it. It would have to be enough, because he wasn’t willing to hand it over.

Maybe I can take the copy to Adrienne. See those eyes one more time.

Jax shook his head. There was no doubt in his mind that Adrienne was the ideal host for her sister’s spirit and no doubt the girl was off limits.

Rene seemed to think Adrienne was the key to breaking the curse. He’d wait and watch to see what happened. If she succeeded, he’d find a body for Therese’s spirit.

Part of him knew he’d already made his choice.

She’s gotta break the curse first.